22 ms·
These are touching portraits of people's backgrounds. However, they are exactly the archetypes I expect in the Venice homeless encampments. The first person is
by drc500free 4y ago
These are touching portraits of people's backgrounds. However, they are exactly the archetypes I expect in the Venice homeless encampments.
The first person is an addict who chops up stolen bikes. The second person has untreated mental health issues. The third person came to LA with no money or employment because the weather was nicer.
They've all had struggles and we need better support for all of them, but nothing surprising here. It is nice to get a more individualized and personal background on each, it's easy to dehumanize when you're walking by and afraid of who is the 1-in-100 that's dangerous.
- throw93232 4y ago
- Stevvo 4y agoIf I was homeless, I'd probably end up doing drugs. Shitty circumstances make you do shitty things.
- jvanderbot 4y agoThat's probably true for you. It's also true for many others that drug addiction causes these issues
- temp8964 4y agoHow do you do drugs when you don’t have money to buy drugs?
- simonh 4y agoYou survive off food banks and soup kitchens, and beg for drug and booze money.
- winphone1974 4y agoThis is the PG version that Disney would use. The reality is a lot more scary and dangerous.
- filoleg 4y ago> How do you do drugs when you don’t have money to buy drugs? I think the top comment up the chain has already mentioned one approach, which is "chop up stolen bikes". There are plenty of other options, but that one would be a solid start. Given the typical price of the kind of bikes that get stolen and chopped, that's a pretty solid income for drugs. Seattle's local news station had an interesting coverage last year on the topic of stolen bikes specifically[0]. Take a look at the following quote: > “So we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 bikes all reported stolen in the Seattle area,” says Hance. “Not all of them have prices. This one does. It’s $5,000 bucks. This one’s $1,500. This one’s $5,000. This one’s $900.” Obviously the stolen ones will be selling for cheaper than the prices you see above. But even if we say that the stolen price is only 25% of the real cost (totally guessing, as i have no idea for the price conversion of stolen to clean), that's still quite plenty for drug money. 0. https://www.kiro7.com/news/jesse-jones/stolen-bikes-can-be-an-atm-criminals-selling-them-online/SRUIOO3BYJFMLAHRMPWLTSHLQI/ https://www.kiro7.com/news/jesse-jones/stolen-bikes-can-be-a...
- spicybright 4y agoSell drugs for your dealer, prostitution, etc.
- winphone1974 4y agoYou steal. What do you think "I get bike parts from various places" means? There's a special hell for bike thieves. I have empathy for the person and their situation, but not for their actions.
- plater 4y agoBurglary and robbery.
- Stevvo 4y agoHomeless people still have money. Many hold down a job, some even full time. They just don't have enough money to make rent.
- hdlothia 4y agoOffer other things as compensation.
- lupire 4y agoDrugs are pretty cheap when you aren't paying rent.
- oh_sigh 4y agoOr, if you were a drug user, you'd maybe end up homeless. It doesn't help to confuse cause and effect.
- quickthrowman 4y agoI mean, the 2nd guy is holding a meth bubble or crackpipe in his picture.. no judgements from me, I’m a recovering addict and alcoholic, but there’s plenty of drug abuse among the homeless population.
- jvanderbot 4y agoexactly. empathy is a wonderful thing to cultivate when designing solutions for obvious problems like homelessness and the community impact it has. But, the fact that homeless people are very real people does not change the fact that their encampments need to be dealt with and the communities around these encampments are suffering very real impacts.
- causality0 4y agoExactly. I want the support system to be good enough that there are few to no "unluckies" in these encampments. If we make it possible for virtually everyone who wants to get back on their feet to do so, then we can bring on the regulations to keep the streets clear. I'd gladly pay more in taxes if it meant I could eat lunch in my car in peace or go shopping in the bad part of town without getting accosted by some asshole who "just needs gas money to get home" like it's not the third time this week.
- kraftman 4y agoWhat kind of person would be there and not unlucky?
- scottshamus 4y agoPeople with serious mental health and/or addiction issues
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- bluefirebrand 4y ago> it's easy to dehumanize when you're walking by and afraid of who is the 1-in-100 that's dangerous I don't blame people for keeping their distance. "only 1 in 100 is dangerous" is very cold comfort when you encounter hundreds every week.
- savant_penguin 4y agoEven if you only meet 7/day or 50 in a week that's 1-0.99^50 ≈ 0.4 Forty percent chance of a dangerous encounter/week is too much imho
- AussieWog93 4y agoThat maths equates meeting someone who is dangerous with putting yourself in danger. You probably walk past rapists, pedophiles and murderers all the time without putting yourself at any serious risk.
- Zircom 4y agoYeah but those people are functional members of society and act relatively rational when compared to untreated severely mentally ill homeless people. Even if you happen to walk by a rapist/murderer/pedo, they're not likely to do anything in broad daylight on a public sidewalk to random passerbys with tons of other people around. The same cannot be said for some homeless.
- lookalike74 4y agoIt's also easy to dehumanize by assuming there are 'archetypes' that can be reasonably applied to people just because they're poor or living on the street.